Sweden v. USA [R]

all i have to say about that match is:

zzzzzzzzzzz.....

 

wow...did anyone see that strike by that Bakircioglu dude....what a strike...no chance for howard

 

Game over. Sweden 1- 0 USA.

Fair score. USA was not prepared to play Sweden. They are used to smaller, fatser Latin American squads, and they got man-handled.

Some things I noticed:

1) We're smaller than I thought. Especially DMB and 'Dolo. And Gooch was shorter than a few of those Swedish cats.

2) Gooch got some confidence back. Perhaps his best USMNT match in quite some time.

3) Bardley has some issues. The fact that he keeps starting his son and Bornstein looks very suspect.

4) Convey is rusty. But you can tell what is needed is there, it will just take time to come back.

5) Kamani Hill is worth keeping an eye on. From what I've seen, him and Feilhaber in the middle would be exciting and creative. Feilhaber is nails.

6) We need to play Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina as many times as they are willing to play us, BUT more European matches will REALLY prepare us to go much further in international competitions. It was too obvious that we are used to playing possession ball against mostly smaller players. Not sure how many times we nailed a Swede in the grill trying to be cute with dribbling or passing, but it was alot.

7) USA! USA! USA!

 

Was thinking the same thing about the options up front the whole match Don. And please forgive me for the tendency towards the negative, but I am from Philadelphia, but Gooch gets played time and time again. Then resorts to silly fouls.

 

Gooch was 2nd best player for USMNT today, behind (but in front of) Howard.

 

USA kills me, man. I think we set a record for most turnovers ever, our back line needs to learn not to lose the opposing offense, and refs need to learn to pull out cards once in a while.

When we go to Europe, we need to do better than this.

 

FFCinPCB pointed out a determining factor: the USMNT is physically small. Hill has potential and I've been on the Feilhaber bandwagon since the China friendly, there's still plenty of room to hop on. We need to finish when sidefooting inside the 6 box...wait, has that been said before around here????

 

I think the problem is we're not physical enough. At least the front third. Dempsey, Donovan, and Beasley really had a tough time. Bornstein wasn't that physical either. Dempsey just isn't the physical type of guy, and I'm starting to regret him coming to Fulham. He seems like a guy who can learn to adapt in Bundesliga. Has more of an attacking flow. Donovan is a little wuss. He's trying to get by the seasoned physical Swedish defenders, just shows how great MLS defenders are. I actually blame it on MLS officials who don't see football as a physical sport. That hampers the ability of defenders in the MLS. That's why Bornstein wasn't playing very physical. Beasley needs to adapt to SPL, but once he understands the flow of the league, he'll be one hell of a player. He had flashes of brilliance, but he still needs to adapt to the physical nature of the Scandanavians and Scots.

I thought Bradley should have started with Hill and Davies up front. Both of them looked amazing up front as subs, especially Hill, and were quite comfortable with the physical play. I thought he would start Davies because of his experience in Sweden and knowledge of Swedish play. Gooch was a beast. Whenever he was sent to mark Ibrahimovic, he got the job done. He knew what he was allowed to do, I think a move to the SPL would be good for him.

 

Mmm.. as I see it, we were there to play sparring partner for the Swedes and check out some of the European players. And maybe try to hone the Gooch/Boca combination.

Am I right? For that reason there was no need to take EJ; I'm pretty sure that Bradley's seen enough of him {take that as you will}.

And I'm all for as many Brazil Arg matchups as possible, but I shed no tears we didnt go to Azteca... always a lose-lose, especially IN-SEASON!

From the flashes I saw of England/Germany match (70 on) we had nothing to complain about as far as being a snoozer.

 

Germans had their 2nd string. England, not as much. Owen had a few great chances. But having chances does not equal wins.

Advantage, Germany.

 

- the two teams were fairly even, they had a half chance and took it well, thus won the game

-Beasley, Donovan, and Mastroni were good

-Hill looked quite promising, unfortunatley his club team has a new manager and the guy has yet to even put Kamani on the bench hopefully that changes soon!

- Convey was terrible, understandable I suppose

!Caution Rant!

- we were looking at Hill, Zizzo, ect. because the game was in Europe and those are European based players. OBSERVATION; everytime we have the likes of Twellman, Johnson, Ching, Rolfe, ect. everyone moans why don't we ever give the Euro based player a shot, and before you know it people are preaching the " they only call MLS based players in, theres a bias against euro players" conspiracy. When we bring European players in and they don't get the job done people moan for TT, EJ, ect. Bradley will never win this battle so my advice to him is just ignore the fans they're looking to have a good pout anyway it dosen't matter what you do you can't prevent it

-This European games as the magic bullet consenus that exists is bull in my opinion. Euro sides don't tend to take friendlies seriously, the squads are almost never at full strength. Oh its the atmosphere you say. Bull also, do you know how many people were at the USA-Sweden game? Barely 20,000 and they were neither hostile nor loud. And how bout that Wembley! England-Germany is one of the most historic and heated matchups in the international game so surely that was a cracking atmosphere....ah no it barley edged out the Target Center when Golden State is in town. Even in qualifiers and tournament games the atmosphere often lacks, they are exception of course (Switzerland v Turkey). I'm not saying don't play these games. Theres somthing to be learned by facing Ibrohimavich but the its not going to automatically prepare us for World Cup games, its not a magic bullet. The upside of scheduling these games is greatley overrated.

Ok I feel better now.

 

What I learned from this game:

Ibrahimovic is REALLY GOOD.

Other than that, I saw basically exactly what I expected to about everyone on the US. Every now and then Howard will make an absurd save on a shot like the one Kallstrom took, and I guess it would've been nice if he had, but basically... middle-of-the-road stuff from everybody. (What, you were surprised to see Cherundolo get physically dominated by Swedes with 6 inches and 30 pounds on him?)

 

It would be easy to jump on the 'Deuce is blowing it' bandwagon (hopefully he's smart enough not to read the messageboards) when
he scuffed that shot early in the second half. All MNT fans are so desperate for him to be a great player his every move is magnified. Our first 2 goodscoring chances of the game and he was in the thick of it. Hopefully, he keeps putting himself in the right place at the right time (his strength), but only start finishing (Sat. would be good time).
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I watched Altidore play 45 minutes last night at RFK, and all I could think was, "He shouldn't even be here; he shoulda been in Sweden, in front of Dempsey.."